At first glance, one would think that any kind of currency error would erode the collection value. In actuality, some errors can actually make bills more valuable, and one such example is misalignment errors. Below is a description of these errors and how they occur.

What Are Misalignment Errors?

Regular American bills have a border surrounding the engraved portrait that is even, both on the back and front. However, sometimes the bill’s framed portion gets misaligned, which means the borders will be uneven, the design will be chopped off, or a portion of the portrait will be on it. Misalignment can also occur within the printing itself, which results in the serial number and seal being off.

On some bills, the green seal will overlap the denomination that is spelled out to the portrait’s right side. In other cases the seal will be off center, and the serial numbers might overlap other areas of the design. Aside from these errors, there are also ink smears.

Currency Ink Smears

When bills are printed, sometimes the black ink that is applied during printing becomes loose on the surface. Every intaglio press utilizes more than one ton of black fluid per hour and this ink requires 3 days to dry, which means that smears, while rare, will occur from time to time.

Wrong Side Prints

Sometimes the serial number and seal will be printed in the reverse side instead of the obverse. This is significant because these days currency printing involves a great deal of automation, so the error has become quite rare. However, currency printing still requires a bit of manual work on the bill sheets themselves, and if the sheets are dropped and then picked back up with the stack being upside down, then the prints which appear in the bills will be reversed.

Butterfly And Gutter Folds

It is also possible for notes to receive folds during the process of printing. When this happens, a portion of the bill’s design can be offset from its other area. Gutter folds extend from one side to the other, while a butterfly fold extends from a single side in a perpendicular way.

Missing Designs And Miscuts

Miscut bills are like a magazine or brochure which has some of the pages removed because they weren’t properly cut. Some bills appear the same way, and will have an additional flap in one corner as a result. Some bills also have areas which are too light, and missing the design. This is usually caused by the front printing being poor, but the serial numbers and seal will stand out more than usual. Sometimes the plate ink flow is interrupted, or the pressured applied from its intaglio press is too light.

Mismatched Series And Serial Numbers

Normally, the letters before the lower left and upper right and the black seal should be identical, but with a mismatched series they won’t be. With mismatched serial numbers, the one that appears in the top right will be different from the one on the bottom left.